Method for providing animal monitoring for driver

Abstract

The invention provides a method for providing animal monitoring for a driver. The method comprises the following steps: receiving animal monitoring information sent by a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor; determining whether at least one of a plurality of trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is reached; in response to at least one of the plurality of trigger conditions being reached, determining whether a current driving state of the driver is safe; and displaying current monitoring information of the animal in response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state, wherein the first triggering condition in the multiple triggering conditions is that it is determined that the time period that the driver currently watches the first area in the vehicle exceeds the first time period through the eyeball tracking technology. According to the method, it is ensured that the driver can check the animal condition only in the safe driving state, the image of the animal can be opened only by moving the eyeballs of the driver, attention distraction of the driver is reduced, and driving safety is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present disclosure relates to the field of intelligent driving, and in particular, to a method, apparatus, computing device, computer-readable storage medium, computer program product, and vehicle for providing animal monitoring for a driver. Background Art

[0002] In recent years, many people are busy with their daily work, but their leisure life after work is relatively empty. Raising pets has gradually become one of the ways for people to fill their loneliness. Office workers who do not have children even love their pets as their own children. When they need to travel, some people choose to leave their pets at home, while others take their pets with them in the car. Out of concern for their pets, the former usually install cameras at home to observe the living conditions of their pets, while the latter often need to travel with a companion to take care of their pets. This is because pets are usually left alone in the back seat during a single car trip, and it is difficult for the owner who is driving to check the condition of the pet in time. In addition, if people travel with children by car, there is usually one person responsible for driving and the other responsible for taking care of the child in the car. Even though the child safety seats on the market can help fix the child and ensure his safety during driving, even if the child has grown up and has basic self-care ability, there are still many concerns when one parent or single mother takes the child out for a drive. The reason is that the owner or parent responsible for driving is easily distracted when checking the pet or child in the car, and even unexpected traffic accidents may occur.

[0003] People sometimes leave their children or pets behind when driving, and sometimes travel with their children or pets. Considering the actual needs of drivers while driving, it is necessary to provide a method for the driver to check the pets or children in real time without affecting the driver's safe driving. Summary of the invention

[0004] As mentioned above, the driver may need to check the condition of children or pets while driving in order to take care of them in time, but doing so will distract the driver's attention and bring potential traffic hazards.

[0005] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and defects, the first aspect of the present disclosure provides a method for providing animal monitoring for a driver, which is implemented on a vehicle, and the method includes: receiving monitoring information for an animal from a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor; determining whether at least one of a plurality of trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is met; in response to meeting at least one of the plurality of trigger conditions, determining whether the current driving state of the driver is safe; and in response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state, displaying the current monitoring information of the animal; wherein the first trigger condition among the plurality of trigger conditions is determining, through eye tracking technology, that the driver is currently gazing at a first area in the vehicle for more than a first time period.

[0006] This method ensures that the driver can check the condition of the animal only when driving safely, and the image of the animal can be opened by simply moving the driver's eyes, reducing the driver's distraction and improving driving safety.

[0007] In one embodiment, the second trigger condition among the multiple trigger conditions is determining that an abnormality occurs in the current state of the animal based on the monitoring information of the animal.

[0008] In one embodiment, a third trigger condition among the plurality of trigger conditions is recognition of a first voice from the driver, and a fourth trigger condition among the plurality of trigger conditions is recognition of a first gesture from the driver.

[0009] In one embodiment, the monitoring information includes one or more of the following information: images, sounds, and reminders of abnormalities in the state of the animal.

[0010] In one embodiment, the sensor includes one or more of the following components located at the location of the animal: a camera, a microphone, a smart collar, and an animal health monitoring device.

[0011] In one embodiment, when the location of the animal is a passenger cabin area of ​​the vehicle, the sensor comprises a camera for photographing the passenger cabin area of ​​the vehicle.

[0012] In one embodiment, the first area includes a portion of a human-machine interaction interface of the vehicle.

[0013] In one embodiment, determining whether the driver's current driving state is safe includes determining one or more of the following situations: (i) determining whether the monitoring of the driver's current state meets the standards; (ii) determining whether the current speed of the vehicle is lower than the speed limit; and (iii) determining whether the vehicle is not on an urban road or an accident-prone area.

[0014] A second aspect of the present disclosure provides a device for providing animal monitoring for a driver, the device being disposed on a vehicle, the device comprising: a receiving module configured to receive monitoring information for an animal from a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor; a determining module configured to determine whether at least one of a plurality of trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is met, and in response to at least one of the plurality of trigger conditions being met, determine whether the current driving state of the driver is safe, wherein a first trigger condition of the plurality of trigger conditions is determining, through eye tracking technology, that the driver is currently gazing at a first area in the vehicle for more than a first time period; and a display module configured to display the current monitoring information of the animal in response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state.

[0015] A third aspect of the present disclosure provides a computing device, comprising: a processor; and a memory for storing computer executable instructions, which, when executed, enables the processor to execute the above-mentioned method of providing animal monitoring for a driver.

[0016] A fourth aspect of the present disclosure provides a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions being used to execute the above-mentioned method of providing animal monitoring for a driver.

[0017] A fifth aspect of the present disclosure provides a computer program product, which is stored on a computer-readable storage medium and includes computer-executable instructions, which, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform the above-mentioned method of providing animal monitoring for a driver.

[0018] A sixth aspect of the present disclosure provides a vehicle, comprising: an on-board networking device; and a control device, which is configured to execute the above-mentioned method of providing animal monitoring for a driver. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0019] The features, advantages and other aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure will become more apparent in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and with reference to the following detailed description. Several embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated herein in an illustrative and non-restrictive manner. In the accompanying drawings, the same reference numerals represent the same or similar components.

[0020] Figure 1 A schematic diagram of an exemplary location where embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied.

[0021] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of an exemplary location where embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied.

[0022] Figure 3The present invention is a schematic block diagram of a method for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0023] Figure 4 It is a display schematic diagram of the central control screen according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0024] Figure 5 The present invention is a schematic block diagram of a method for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0025] Figure 6 It is a schematic block diagram of an apparatus for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0026] Figure 7 is a block diagram of an exemplary computing device for data processing according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0027] The various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although the exemplary methods and devices described below include software and / or firmware executed on hardware among other components, it should be noted that these examples are merely illustrative and should not be regarded as restrictive. For example, it is considered that any or all hardware, software, and firmware components can be implemented exclusively in hardware, exclusively in software, or in any combination of hardware and software. Therefore, although exemplary methods and devices have been described below, it should be readily understood by those skilled in the art that the examples provided are not intended to limit the manner in which these methods and devices are implemented.

[0028] In addition, the flowcharts and block diagrams in the accompanying drawings illustrate the possible architectures, functions and operations of the methods and systems according to the various embodiments of the present disclosure. It should be noted that the functions marked in the boxes may also occur in an order different from that marked in the accompanying drawings. For example, two boxes represented in succession may actually be executed substantially in parallel, or they may sometimes be executed in the opposite order, depending on the functions involved. It should also be noted that each box in the flowchart and / or block diagram, and the combination of boxes in the flowchart and / or block diagram, may be implemented using a dedicated hardware-based system that performs a specified function or operation, or may be implemented using a combination of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

[0029] For the convenience of description, some terms appearing in the present disclosure are explained below. It should be understood that the terms used in the present application should be interpreted as having the same meaning as in the context of the present application specification and in the relevant field. The terms "including", "comprising" and similar terms in the present disclosure should be understood as open terms, i.e., "including but not limited to", indicating that other contents may also be included.

[0030] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the term "vehicle" may be a car, truck, SUV, van, bus or any other rolling platform, and the vehicle may be a pure electric vehicle, a fuel vehicle, or a hybrid vehicle.

[0031] As mentioned above, the driver may need to check the condition of children or pets while driving in order to take care of them in time, but doing so will distract the driver's attention and bring potential traffic hazards.

[0032] To this end, the present disclosure proposes a method for providing animal monitoring for the driver, which is implemented on a vehicle and includes: receiving monitoring information for animals sent by a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor; determining whether at least one of multiple trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is met; in response to meeting at least one of the multiple trigger conditions, determining whether the driver's current driving state is safe; and in response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state, displaying the current monitoring information of the animal; wherein the first trigger condition of the multiple trigger conditions is to determine through eye tracking technology that the driver is currently looking at a first area in the car for more than a first time period. This method ensures that the driver can only check the status of the animal in a safe driving state, and the image of the animal can be turned on only by the driver's eye movement, which reduces the driver's distraction and improves driving safety. It should be noted that the "animals" mentioned in the present disclosure refer to pets and people.

[0033] As described below, embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, apparatuses, computing devices, computer-readable storage media, computer program products, and vehicles that provide animal monitoring for a driver.

[0034] Figure 1 An exemplary location 100 is shown in which embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied. Figure 1 , a plurality of sensors are installed in the family residence to monitor pets (such as cats, dogs, etc.), and these sensors can communicate with the control unit 101. The plurality of sensors include but are not limited to a camera 102, a microphone 103, a smart collar 104, and an animal health monitoring device 105. Among them, the camera 102 (such as a home monitor) is a video input device that can be used to obtain monitoring images and sounds of the animal. The microphone 103 is an audio device that can not only obtain sounds in the residence, but also play remote voices from the owner. The smart coil 104 can be tied to the neck or limbs of the animal and used to provide the GPS location information, motion data, and health information of the animal. The animal health monitoring device 105 can be used to monitor the physiological data of the animal and issue a reminder when the animal's state is abnormal. In Figure 1In the embodiment, the control unit controls these sensors to start or stop collecting animal monitoring information, and the collected monitoring information is sent to the vehicle communication unit 201 by the communication unit 106 in the residence through a wireless network such as Ethernet or WIFI, and optionally through processing on a cloud platform. In other examples, one or more of the above sensors may not communicate with the control unit 101, and the communication module they have may send the animal monitoring information to the vehicle communication unit 201.

[0035] Figure 2 An exemplary location 200 in which the embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied is shown. When a driver chooses to travel with a pet or a child, the driver may choose to place the pet or the child in a passenger cabin area, such as the front passenger seat, the back seat, etc. of the vehicle. Figure 2 The vehicle is provided with a camera 203 for photographing the passenger cabin area, and the camera 203 may be responsible for collecting monitoring information of the animal. The camera 203 may also be communicatively coupled to the vehicle communication unit 201 via any of a wired connection, a wireless connection, or a bus connection (e.g., a vehicle communication network such as a vehicle network bus such as CAN, LIN, Flex Ray, MOST, LVDS, or an Ethernet bus, etc.), so as to send monitoring information in the form of a video stream to the vehicle's ECU (electronic control unit) 202. In other examples, the vehicle may also be provided with other sensors for collecting monitoring information of the passenger cabin area.

[0036] Figure 3 A method 300 for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown, and the method 300 includes steps S301 to S304. The method 300 is implemented on a vehicle and can be executed by an ECU 202 (such as a body ECU or an infotainment ECU) or other control devices.

[0037] Step S301: receiving monitoring information on animals from a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor.

[0038] If relevant Figure 1-Figure 2As described, the ECU 202 of the vehicle receives real-time monitoring information sent from external sensors such as camera 102, microphone 103, smart collar 104, animal health monitoring equipment 105, etc. or corresponding control units (such as control unit 101) via the communication unit 201 through wired connection, wireless connection or bus connection. ECU 202 specifies a memory to store monitoring information data, and processes, uses, and releases the monitoring information data. In another example, the above-mentioned external sensor or corresponding control unit uploads the monitoring information to the cloud platform, and the cloud platform is responsible for storage. The monitoring collection information from the external sensor or the corresponding control unit is obtained by ECU 202 sending a data request to the cloud platform through the communication unit 201. In other examples, ECU 202 can also directly obtain monitoring information from the camera 203 through the vehicle communication line (such as CAN communication line) included in the communication unit 201.

[0039] Step S302: Determine whether at least one of a plurality of trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is met, wherein a first trigger condition is determining through eye tracking technology that the driver is currently staring at a first area in the vehicle for more than a first time period.

[0040] This method provides multiple trigger conditions for animal monitoring to meet the driver's needs for animal monitoring, which will be described in detail below. Among them, the first trigger condition is to determine through eye tracking technology that the driver is currently looking at the first area (such as area b of the central control screen, refer to Figure 4 ) exceeds the first time period (for example, 2 seconds). When a person's eyes look in different directions, there will be subtle changes in the characteristics of the eyes. Eye tracking technology uses a computer to track eye changes in real time through image capture or scanning, extract eye movement characteristics, and then predict user needs to achieve the purpose of controlling the device with the eyes. The eye tracking technology used includes but is not limited to infrared eye tracking technology, optical eye tracking technology, magnetic eye tracking technology, and resistive eye tracking technology. The method of collecting and acquiring eye movement data can be a camera facing the driver, or it can be special glasses for eye tracking. Special eye tracking applications can also be added to the vehicle's ECU202. These applications are based on image acquisition data provided by cameras or glasses, etc., and analyze and process to obtain eye movement tracking results. ECU202 determines whether the driver continues to stare at the first area in the first time period (such as within the above-mentioned 2 seconds) based on the eye movement tracking results.

[0041] The first area includes a portion of the human-machine interface of the vehicle. The human-machine interface can be a screen installed in the vehicle compartment (such as a central control screen), or a high-altitude visual system (or VTH) that can project images on the vehicle glass. Figure 4The figure shows the screen display of the central control screen according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Among them, area b can be the first area applicable to the present method, and area b can display pictures of pets or children to indicate to the user that animal monitoring is to be turned on in the area. In other examples, the first area can also be other customized areas such as area a or c in the central control screen.

[0042] Step S303: In response to at least one of the multiple trigger conditions being met, determining whether the driver's current driving state is safe.

[0043] When the driver's operation reaches the first trigger condition, the method continues to determine whether the driver's current driving state is safe. Determining whether the driver's driving is safe includes determining whether the driver's current state monitoring meets the predetermined standard. For example, by installing a DMS system (Driver Monitor System) on the vehicle, the driver can be monitored for fatigue, distraction, and dangerous actions during driving. Correspondingly, a camera for the DMS system should also be installed on the vehicle to collect image data about the driver. During driving, the DMS system needs to evaluate whether the driver's current state meets the preset standards, such as the standards specified in GB / T 41797-2022 Driver Attention Monitoring System Performance Requirements and Test Methods or other commonly used standards to determine whether the current driving state is safe. If the driver's state monitoring meets this standard, the current driving state is considered safe.

[0044] In addition, determining whether the driver's driving is safe also includes determining whether the current speed of the vehicle is lower than the speed limit. For example, the speed limit can be set to 80 kilometers per hour. If the speed exceeds 80 kilometers per hour, the current driving state is considered to be unsafe, and the driver will not be provided with animal monitoring information. Otherwise, the current driving state is considered to be safe. Determining whether the driver's driving is safe can also include determining whether the vehicle is not on urban roads or accident-prone areas. For example, the current geographical location and road condition information of the vehicle can be obtained based on GPS positioning information and combined with applications such as Baidu Maps and Amap. If the vehicle is in an area with complex road conditions, this method will consider the current driving state to be unsafe, otherwise, the current driving state is considered to be safe.

[0045] Step S304: In response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state, display the current monitoring information of the animal.

[0046] The current monitoring information of animals is displayed through the human-computer interaction interface on the vehicle. Animal monitoring information includes but is not limited to images, sounds, and reminders of abnormal animal status. Figure 1In the application scenario shown, the smart collar 104 or animal health monitoring device 105 analyzes and processes the data it collects and alerts the user when the animal's state is abnormal. In some examples, ECU202 uses artificial intelligence algorithms to train models using animal monitoring data from sensors to analyze animal behavior in real time. This includes detecting whether the animal is in danger or uncomfortable. Over time and with the large amount of data received, the intelligent algorithm can learn and adapt to animal behavior, and then provide personalized behavioral instructions to the user, such as issuing reminders when the animal's state is abnormal. The human-computer interaction interface can display the above reminder content or broadcast the above reminder by voice.

[0047] Method 300 must first determine the driving safety of the vehicle before providing animal monitoring information to the driver, which ensures the driver's driving safety and avoids unexpected situations during driving. Moreover, the driver can open the animal monitoring video by just slightly moving his eyes without manual operation. Such seamless access will bring convenience to the driver and minimize the driver's distraction. Even if the driver is driving alone, he can take care of the children or pets in the car in time, or he can also observe the children or pets far away at home at any time, so as to take measures when they encounter abnormal situations.

[0048] Figure 5 A specific flow chart of providing animal monitoring for a driver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown, and the flow chart includes a method 500 consisting of steps S501 to S507.

[0049] In step S501, monitoring information about the animal is received from a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor. As described above, the sensor includes a camera, a microphone, a smart collar, and an animal health monitoring device arranged at the location of the animal. When the location of the animal is the passenger cabin area of ​​the vehicle, the sensor also includes a camera for photographing the passenger cabin area of ​​the vehicle. For example, the monitoring information of the animal may be a video stream collected by the camera.

[0050] In step S502, it is determined whether the first trigger condition for providing animal monitoring is met, that is, it is determined by eye tracking technology that the driver is currently looking at a first area in the vehicle for more than a first period of time. If yes, proceed to step S506; if not, proceed to step S503. In one example, the eye tracking or sight tracking function provided by the DMS system installed on the vehicle can be used to implement this step.

[0051] In step S503, it is determined whether the second trigger condition for providing animal monitoring is met, that is, it is determined based on the monitoring information of the animal that the current state of the animal is abnormal. If yes, it proceeds to step S506; if not, it proceeds to step S504. As described above, the determination of the abnormal state of the animal may come from the reminder issued by the smart collar 104 or the animal health monitoring device 105, or it may come from the analysis result of the animal monitoring data by the ECU 202 with the help of the artificial intelligence algorithm.

[0052] In step S504, it is determined whether the third trigger condition for providing animal monitoring, i.e., the recognition of the first voice from the driver, is met. If yes, proceed to step S506; if no, proceed to step S505. This step can be implemented by relying on a microphone and voice recognition software provided on the vehicle. For example, when a user utters a first voice such as "look at the pet", "look at the child", etc., indicating checking animal monitoring, the voice recognition software can recognize the keywords "look", "pet", or "child", and send this information to ECU202, which then determines that the third trigger condition has been met. In some embodiments, the user can customize the keywords contained in the first voice.

[0053] In step S505, it is determined whether the fourth trigger condition for providing animal monitoring, i.e., recognition of the driver's first gesture, is met. If yes, proceed to step S506; if no, proceed to step S501. In one example, the gesture recognition function provided by the DMS system loaded on the vehicle can be used to implement this step. For example, palm up can be defined as the first gesture. When the driver extends his palm with the palm facing up, the DMS system can recognize the gesture and send the recognition result to ECU202, and then ECU202 determines that the fourth trigger condition has been met. In some embodiments, the user can customize the first gesture.

[0054] In step S506, it is determined whether the current driving state of the driver is safe. If yes, proceed to step S507; if no, proceed to step S501. Determining whether the driving state is safe may include determining whether the current state monitoring of the driver meets the standard, determining whether the current speed of the vehicle is lower than the speed limit, determining whether the vehicle is not in an urban road or an accident-prone area, or any other suitable judgment method.

[0055] In step S507, the current monitoring information of the animal is displayed to the driver. The monitoring information of the animal can be a monitoring video or a reminder of abnormal animal status. For example, the monitoring video is played on the central control screen according to preset parameters. If the above process goes through step S503 and the third trigger condition is met, the current monitoring information must include a reminder of abnormal animal status so that the user can take timely measures to take care of the pet or child.

[0056] It should be noted that the trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring are not limited to the four provided in the present disclosure. Moreover, the execution order of the above four trigger conditions may change, that is, the execution order of steps S502 to S505 is not in particular order. In some embodiments, there may be more or fewer trigger conditions.

[0057] The method for providing animal monitoring for the driver proposed in the present disclosure has found and solved the potential needs of current people, that is, children or pets can also be monitored during driving alone. In addition, when abnormal conditions occur in children or pets, method 500 can send instant reminders to the driver.

[0058] Figure 6 The device 600 for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown, and the device 600 is arranged on a vehicle. Each unit in the device 600 can be implemented by software, hardware (such as an integrated circuit, FPGA, etc.) or a combination of software and hardware. Figure 6 , the device 600 includes a receiving module 601, a determining module 602, and a display module 603. The receiving module 601 is configured to receive monitoring information for animals from a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor. The determining module 602 is configured to determine whether at least one of a plurality of trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is met, and in response to meeting at least one of the plurality of trigger conditions, determine whether the driver's current driving state is safe, wherein the first trigger condition of the plurality of trigger conditions is to determine through eye tracking technology that the driver is currently staring at a first area in the car for more than a first time period. The display module 603 is configured to display the current monitoring information of the animal in response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state. For other details of the device 600 providing animal monitoring for the driver, reference can be made to the introduction of the above-mentioned method 300 or method 500.

[0059] Figure 7A block diagram of an exemplary computing device 700 for data processing according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown. The computing device 700 includes a processor 701 and a memory 702 coupled to the processor 701. The memory 702 is used to store computer executable instructions, and when the computer executable instructions are executed, the processor 701 executes the method in the above embodiment (for example, any one or more steps of method 300 or method 500).

[0060] In addition, alternatively, the above method can be implemented by a computer-readable storage medium. Computer-readable storage media are loaded with computer-readable program instructions for executing various embodiments of the present disclosure. Computer-readable storage media can be a tangible device that can hold and store instructions used by an instruction execution device. Computer-readable storage media can be, for example, but not limited to, electrical storage devices, magnetic storage devices, optical storage devices, electromagnetic storage devices, semiconductor storage devices, or any suitable combination of the above. More specific examples (non-exhaustive lists) of computer-readable storage media include: portable computer disks, hard disks, random access memories (RAM), read-only memories (ROM), erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROM or flash memory), static random access memories (SRAM), portable compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROM), digital versatile disks (DVD), memory sticks, floppy disks, mechanical encoding devices, such as punch cards or protruding structures in grooves on which instructions are stored, and any suitable combination of the above. The computer-readable storage medium used herein is not to be construed as a transient signal per se, such as a radio wave or other freely propagating electromagnetic wave, an electromagnetic wave propagating through a waveguide or other transmission medium (e.g., light pulses through a fiber optic cable), or an electrical signal transmitted through wires.

[0061] Therefore, in another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, where the computer-executable instructions are used to execute the methods in various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0062] In another embodiment, the present disclosure proposes a computer program product, which is tangibly stored on a computer-readable storage medium and includes computer-executable instructions that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform the methods in various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0063] In general, various example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or dedicated circuits, software, firmware, logic, or any combination thereof. Certain aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software that may be executed by a controller, microprocessor, or other computing device. When various aspects of the embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated or described as block diagrams, flow charts, or using some other graphical representation, it will be understood that the blocks, devices, systems, techniques, or methods described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, dedicated circuits or logic, general hardware or controllers or other computing devices, or some combination thereof as non-limiting examples.

[0064] Computer-readable program instructions or computer program products for executing the various embodiments of the present disclosure can also be stored in the cloud. When needed, users can access the computer-readable program instructions for executing an embodiment of the present disclosure stored in the cloud through mobile Internet, fixed network or other networks, thereby implementing the technical solutions disclosed in accordance with the various embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0065] In another embodiment, the present disclosure provides a vehicle comprising an on-board networking device; and a control device configured to perform the method of providing animal monitoring to a driver in various embodiments of the present disclosure. The control device may include a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a programmable digital signal processor, or another programmable device. The control device may also or alternatively include an application specific integrated circuit, a programmable gate array or programmable array logic, a programmable logic device, or a digital signal processor. When the control unit includes a programmable device such as the above-mentioned microprocessor, microcontroller, or programmable digital signal processor, the processor may also include a computer executable code that controls the operation of the programmable device.

[0066] Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been described with reference to several specific embodiments, it should be understood that the embodiments of the present disclosure are not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed. The embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included in the spirit and scope of the appended claims. The scope of the claims is consistent with the broadest interpretation, thereby including all such modifications and equivalent structures and functions.

Claims

1. A method for providing animal monitoring for a driver, the method being implemented on a vehicle, the method comprising: Receiving monitoring information on the animal from a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor; determining whether at least one of a plurality of trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is met; In response to at least one of the plurality of trigger conditions being met, determining whether the driver's current driving state is safe; as well as In response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state, displaying the current monitoring information of the animal; Among them, the first trigger condition among the multiple trigger conditions is to determine through eye tracking technology that the driver is currently staring at a first area in the car for more than a first time period.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The second trigger condition among the multiple trigger conditions is determining, based on the monitoring information of the animal, that an abnormality occurs in the current state of the animal.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein: A third trigger condition among the multiple trigger conditions is recognition of a first voice from the driver, and a fourth trigger condition among the multiple trigger conditions is recognition of a first gesture from the driver.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein: The monitoring information includes one or more of the following information: images, sounds, and reminders of abnormalities in the state of the animal.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The sensor includes one or more of the following components located at the location of the animal: a camera, a microphone, a smart collar, and an animal health monitoring device.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein: When the location of the animal is a passenger cabin area of ​​the vehicle, the sensor includes a camera for photographing the passenger cabin area of ​​the vehicle.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein: The first area includes a portion of a human-machine interaction interface of the vehicle.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein: Determining whether the current driving state of the driver is safe includes determining one or more of the following situations: (i) determining whether the current state monitoring of the driver meets the standard; (ii) determining whether the current speed of the vehicle is lower than the speed limit; and (iii) determining whether the vehicle is not on an urban road or an accident-prone area.

9. A device for providing animal monitoring for a driver, the device being arranged on a vehicle, the device comprising: A receiving module configured to receive monitoring information on the animal from a sensor or a control unit corresponding to the sensor; a determination module configured to determine whether at least one of a plurality of trigger conditions for providing animal monitoring is met, and in response to meeting at least one of the plurality of trigger conditions, determine whether the current driving state of the driver is safe, wherein a first trigger condition of the plurality of trigger conditions is determining, by eye tracking technology, that the driver is currently gazing at a first area in the vehicle for more than a first period of time; The display module is configured to display the current monitoring information of the animal in response to determining that the current driving state is a safe state.

10. A computing device comprising: processor; as well as A memory for storing computer executable instructions, which, when executed, causes the processor to perform the method for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to any one of claims 1-8.

11. A computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon, the computer-executable instructions being used to execute the method for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to any one of claims 1-8.

12. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable storage medium and comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform the method of providing animal monitoring for a driver according to any one of claims 1-8.

13. A vehicle comprising: In-vehicle networking equipment; as well as A control device configured to execute the method for providing animal monitoring for a driver according to any one of claims 1-8.

Images